Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2009. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed July 2, 2009). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 257-264).

Creativity is a complex construct that is conceptualized and measured in multiple ways. This study examined the relationship between creativity and personality taking this into account. It was hypothesized that applying different conceptions and measures would cause variation in the creativity-personality relationship. The participants (N = 224) were undergraduate students completed six creativity measures, a personality inventory, and a demographic questionnaire. Personality predicted more creative production (R2 = .277) than creative potential (R2 = .176) and more self-reported creativity (R2 = .348) than that which was externally-rated (R2 = .149). Personality predicted creativity beyond demographic and intellect variables, but the effects varied based on the creativity measure. Openness was most consistently and strongly related to creativity. Other personality factors demonstrated suppression effects in multiple models. Overall, the results suggest that despite relatively small effects of personality on creativity, it can help strengthen prediction in creativity models. Implications for educational settings and future research are discussed.

This exegesis is an exploration of meditative process in painting and drawing and accompanies an exhibition of paintings and large drawings called What Lies Beneath. The text contains several passages, called &quotmeditations,&quot which accompany the themes approached in the chapters and give insight into the thoughts and practices of the artist. The methodology involves the examination of the evidence of the work produced by selected artists, looking at the words of artists in notebooks, diaries and interviews and surveying a small number of local contemporary artists. The text opens up the possibilities of drapery and garments and of still life as paths to meditative practice in painting and drawing. The qualities that characterize meditative process/practice, derived from my observations, are categorized. Some of the strengths of these processes are revealed through the examination of the work of artists, both contemporary and historical. The work of Vermeer, Sanchez Cotan, Francisco Zurbaran and contemporary artists Anne Judell, Simon Cooper, Jude Rae, Alison Watt and Eva Hesse highlight different aspects of the meditative process in painting and drawing. The art works in the exhibition are documented and bring out the meditative processes that have contributed to their creation, including the use and meaning of the subject (drapery and the garment as a form of still life).

Humans are a musical species and every culture has its music. However, twenty individuals out of a cohort of twenty-nine participants in this study judged themselves to be 'not musical'. Through their words, silences and responses, the story of music in the lives of these self-perceived non-musicians uncovered a musical world where concepts of performance, judgment and talent dominate. My investigation into individuals' perceptions of their musicality revealed a pervasive societal belief that individuals were either born 'musical' or they were not; their everyday reality was one where music was perceived as a performance, an object, something that only talented people can 'do'. I planned conversations with participants that aimed to reveal clues that could help to unravel a paradox that lies within music in our Western culture: every young human is intrinsically musical but only some are born with a gift to be musical. Participant convictions that they were not musical deterred some individuals from active engagement in music making. They felt as if they had been left out of the 'musical ballpark'. Details from conversations illustrated a constricting cultural imposition on individuals; this was perpetuated in many schools and also in private music teaching. Data revealed that current educational practice contributed to a denial of a natural birthright and alienated some individuals from being part of a musical community. As their stories revealed failed attempts to engage in music making, iterative contacts created a daunting quantity of data. But there was poetry in participant data. These self-perceived non-musicians simultaneously demonstrated their musicality in the rhythms of their narrative as they denied that they were musical; this emerged as a means to report the research whereby participants' words combined to tell a non-musician's tale. Compelling narrative revealed a society where educational practice does little to address individual musical development. While each story alone was specific and complex, once the stories became woven together as a complex and contradictory whole, the ballad of the never picked captured the essence of a distanced musicality in our Western society. Narrative drove towards meaning. Through interpretation and detailed qualitative analysis, understandings began to emerge from depths of experience and from friction existing within contradictions. Deep within narrative which evolved over a period of five years were perceptions that led to understandings of our cultural reality. Active involvement in this research became part of an emancipatory process for several participants where mutually reflective acts exposed unnecessary impositions from societal expectations. Participant voices uncover a bifurcated reality wherein the musical development of many individuals is undermined through an ignorance of holistic human potential; this musical-unmusical divide is perpetuated in educational practice.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Western Ontario, 1998. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 98-101).